Arthritis disease The use of complementary therapies Joint pain Background

FOCUS
Joint pain
Arthritis disease
Marie Pirotta
The use of complementary therapies
Background
While effective drugs are available to deal with the
symptoms and modify the progress of osteoarthritis and
rheumatoid arthritis, these may cause serious adverse
events and not all patients will obtain relief. Many people
with these diseases use complementary medicines.
Objective
This article presents an overview of the evidence for the
most promising complementary therapies for osteoarthritis
and rheumatoid arthritis, with other information that
general practitioners need to know.
Discussion
There is reasonable evidence to support the use of
glucosamine, avocado/soybean unsaponifiables and
chondroitin in osteoarthritis, and omega-3 fatty acids and
gammalinolenic acid in rheumatoid arthritis. However, no
current evidence does not equate to lack of effectiveness.
Rigorous research into the use of complementary
medicines in arthritis is evolving and many of the
systematic reviews used in preparation of this article are
being updated every few years to incorporate new trial
evidence as it becomes available.
Keywords: complementary therapies; arthritis/
rheumatic diseases; osteoarthritis; rheumatoid arthritis;
musculoskeletal diseases; pain, therapy; pain, chronic
disease
Osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are
common causes of morbidity in Australia. In a South
Australian Health Omnibus survey, 26% of participants aged
18 years and over reported having doctor-diagnosed arthritis;
of these, two-thirds reported health related quality of life
below that of Australian population norms.1
While Western medicine offers effective treatments for arthritis, both
symptom and disease modifying, these drugs can have serious adverse
events. For example, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can
cause gastrointestinal bleeding or perforation (one in 50–100 patient
years)2 and disease modifying drugs used in RA may cause severe
anaemia and even death.3 In addition, these drugs may not achieve good
control of arthritis symptoms for all patients.
Therefore, it is understandable that patients with arthritis often turn
to complementary medicines (CM): approximately 40% of Australians
with OA use CM.4 Complementary medicines can be purchased
over-the-counter with no professional advice. People mistakenly
consider CM to be ‘natural’ and therefore ‘safe’, or that they have
been ‘tested by the government’.5 However, while generally safer than
pharmaceuticals, CM can have side effects and interact with other
medicines. In Australia, CM is regulated by the Therapeutic Goods
Administration for quality and safety, although not necessarily for
efficacy, so quality issues often detected internationally should not be
an issue in products purchased in Australia.
A recent study found 260 CM offered for purchase through the
internet for arthritis, yet only 41 had been subjected to any clinical
testing.6 Rigorous research into CM effectiveness is relatively recent,
and many trials to date are substandard, due to poor methods or little
funding: there is no equivalent of ‘big pharma’ pouring dollars into CM
trials in the hope of recouping investment through lucrative patents.
Despite these issues, trial evidence regarding CM use in OA and RA
is accumulating.
Osteoarthritis
Nutritional supplements
Several nutritional supplements, namely glucosamine, avocado/soybean
unsaponifiables and diacerein, have some evidence for use in OA. They
show a slow onset of action over 6–8 weeks, and a carryover of effect
for up to 2 months after withdrawal.7
Glucosamine is naturally produced in humans and is a substrate
used to make articular cartilage. Overall, several systematic reviews
638 Reprinted from Australian Family Physician Vol. 39, No. 9, september 2010
found that glucosamine sulphate in dosages of 1500 mg/day is effective
and safe in reducing pain and improving function, in particular, in mild to
moderate OA of the knee.6,8–11
However, some uncertainty exists, as the size of effect of
glucosamine is becoming smaller as more high quality trials are
undertaken and incorporated into meta-analyses.11 One proviso of
these systematic reviews is that nearly all positive trials used one
European company’s glucosamine product, and it is not known whether
other preparations are equally effective. The Royal Australian College
of General Practitioners (RACGP) Guidelines for the non-surgical
management of hip and knee osteoarthritis state that the evidence is
uncertain, and recommend only that general practitioners may inform
patients about its availability and safety.2
Glucosamine is well tolerated for at least 3 years and early concerns
about its negative impact on glucose control do not appear to be justified
by later research. However, there have been Australian reports of
interactions with warfarin, usually causing an increase in International
Normalised Ratio (INR). In fact, the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory
Committee recommends patients taking warfarin should have their INR
assessed within a few days and no later than 2 weeks after commencing
or changing the dose of any CM.12
Adverse effects include mild gastrointestinal symptoms and skin
reactions.13 Glucosamine is derived from shellfish and should not be
taken by people with shellfish allergy. There is a lack of safety data to
support its use by pregnant and lactating women, and by children under
the age of 2 years.9
Glucosamine may work synergistically with chondroitin sulphate,
fish oil, vitamin C and manganese, and there does not seem to be other
clinically important interactions.9
Several reviews, including a Cochrane review, found that avocado/
soybean unsaponifiables in dosages around 300 mg/day are superior
to placebo in improving function, reducing pain and the use of NSAIDs
in patients with OA of the hip and knee. The Cochrane review calls for
more trials to confirm these results.14 Adverse events were few and
mainly involved the GIT.6,11,14,15 In in-vitro studies, avocado/soybean
unsaponifiables stimulated collagen synthesis and may promote
cartilage repair mechanisms.15
Diacerein’s active derivative is an anthraquinone found in plants of
the generus Cassia and has moderate anti-inflammatory and analgesic
activity and weak laxative effects.16 Two meta-analyses of the trials to
date found that diacerein (2 x 50 mg/day) seems to have a small effect
on pain in patients with OA of the hip and knee, although studies with
follow up of more than 6 months show no effect on pain or function.
Unfortunately diacerein often (42%) causes diarrhoea.16,17
In preliminary studies, vitamin D may possibly have a direct
effect on the chondrocytes of osteoarthritic cartilage and vitamin
C supplementation may reduce the degree of joint damage. In the
Framingham Osteoarthritis cohort, incidence of OA was not associated
with low vitamin C or D levels, but progression of OA was significantly
related to the lowest levels of vitamin D and limited by vitamin C
supplementation.18 A more recent Dutch prospective cohort study of
elderly people found an association between low vitamin D levels and
progression of OA of the knee, especially if the baseline bone mineral
density was low.19
Chondroitin
Chondroitin, usually obtained from bovine trachea or shark cartilage,10
may be both a symptom modifying and a disease modifying agent in OA.
Recent systematic reviews show it is effective and safe to reduce pain
in doses of 800–1200 mg/day; however, no benefit is found if only the
highest quality trials are reviewed.6,10,11 Four company sponsored trials
found benefit in reducing cartilage loss.11 Adverse events are similar to
those of placebo in trials.13
Herbal medicines
A plethora of herbs have a history of use in OA. While the possible
mechanisms of action for some herbs in OA have been discovered, such
as for green tea, turmeric and ginger,20 overall more research is needed,
and at present no herbal medicines have clear evidence to support their
use in OA.14,21 Herbal products are widely used, so their excellent safety
record is reassuring, as most herbs tested for OA have no, minor or rare
severe adverse effects.15,21 Details of rare severe adverse effects are
beyond the scope of this article but may be found in the reference list.
However, the benefit-harm ratio of the herbs mentioned here is clearly
better than that for NSAIDs.21
No meta-analyses of herbal medicines for OA were found due to
variations in doses used, assessment methods and observation periods
in the studies. A Cochrane review found only single trials with positive
results for a willow bark preparation and topical capsaicin;14 the RACGP
guidelines report weak evidence to support GP recommendation for
topical capsaicin in the short term of hip and knee OA.2 Other systematic
reviews found, in addition to these two herbs, limited evidence for
Articulin-F (an Ayuvedic herbomineral formulation of Withrania somnifera,
Boswellia serrata, tumeric and zinc), cat’s claw, celadrin, devil’s claw,
Duhuo Jisheng Wan, ginger, Phytodolor, SAM-e, stinging nettle, white
willow and wobenzyme.6,14,15,22
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic painful disabling condition that affects
about 1% of people worldwide and may have a significant impact on
quality of life. One estimate of the cost of RA in Australia in 2004 was
$400 million.3 Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease and many
of the CM used have been shown to have anti-inflammatory mechanisms
of action.23
The RACGP Guidelines for management of early rheumatoid arthritis
recommend that GPs should recommend omega-3 supplementation as
an adjunct for management of pain and stiffness in patients with RA, as
there is excellent evidence to support use of up to 12 g omega-3 daily.3
While there are theoretical concerns that fish oils may cause bleeding,
a 2010 review in Australian Prescriber found only three case reports to
support this. For safety, it is recommended to monitor patients using fish
oils and warfarin concurrently, and consider ceasing fish oils 4–7 days
Reprinted from Australian Family Physician Vol. 39, No. 9, september 2010 639
FOCUS Arthritis disease – the use of complementary therapies
before elective surgery or during an acute bleeding event.24
The guidelines also recommend that GPs might recommend
gammalinolenic acid for potential relief of pain, morning stiffness and
joint tenderness in RA patients.3 Three systematic reviews pooled trials of
plant derived gammalinolenic acid from seed oils from evening primrose,
blackcurrant and borage.22,25,26 At higher doses of between 1400–2800
mg there were significant improvements in pain, duration of morning
stiffness and joint tenderness in patients with RA.
Fatty acid interventions may also provide supplementary or
alternative treatment to NSAIDs and enable a lower dose to be used
for some patients.
Oral Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F extract was also found to have
evidence of effectiveness in RA. One serious adverse event, fever and
aplastic anaemia, was reported in one trial, and frequent reports of other
adverse events, including headache, diarrhoea and hair loss, may limit its
usefulness.25
Currently there is no evidence to support the use of other herbs in the
treatment of RA.25,26
The literature regarding vitamin D and RA seems limited to advice to
monitor its levels due to the risk of falls and osteoporosis.27 As vitamin
D has been shown in experiments to play a role in immunopathogenesis
of, and low doses are associated with, other autoimmune diseases, it is
reasonable to supplement low blood levels.28
Conclusion
There is reasonable evidence to support use of glucosamine, avocado/
soybean unsaponifiables and chondroitin in OA and omega-3 fatty
acids and gammalinolenic acid in RA. However, lack of current evidence
does not equate to lack of effectiveness. Rigorous research into CM
use in arthritis is evolving and many of the systematic reviews used
in preparation of this article are being updated every few years to
incorporate new trial evidence as it becomes available.
General practitioners should enquire about and record any CM that
their patients with OA/RA may be using. While generally safe, many
CM can cause minor side effects, interactions with other medicines, or
occasionally more severe adverse events. Many unbiased and reliable
websites now exist to access more information about specific CM, such
as the United Kingdom National Health Service (www.evidence.nhs.uk) or
the United States of America National Institute of Health (http://nccam.
nih.gov/health/herbsataglance.htm).
Author
Marie Pirotta MBBS, FRACGP, MMed, GradDipEpi&Biostats, PhD,
is PHCRED Senior Research Fellow, Department of General Practice,
University of Melbourne, Victoria. [email protected].
Conflict of interest: none.
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